EU General Product Safety Regulation >> Published

The General Product Safety Regulation  (GPSR) is a new key instrument in the EU product safety legal framework, published on the Official Journal on the 23rd of May 2023, replacing from 13 December 2024 the current General Product Safety Directive  and the Food Imitating Product Directive . It modernises the EU general product safety framework and address the new challenges posed to product safety by the digitalisation of our economies.

The GPSR requires that all consumer products on the EU markets are safe and it establishes specific obligations for businesses to ensure it.

It applies to non-food products and to all sales channels. The GPSR provides a safety net for products or risks not regulated in other EU legislation. This safety net function means that EU consumers are always protected against dangerous products, be it now or in the future.

Objectives:

(*) ensuring the safety of all products, including those linked to new technologies

(*) addressing challenges posed by the growth of online sales and in particular via online marketplaces;

(*) ensuring a better enforcement of the rules and more efficient and even market surveillance;

(*) improving the effectiveness of recalls of dangerous products in the hands of consumers.

What's new?

(*) Precautionary principle shall be widely applied by all stakeholders for product safety

(*) Specific product safety obligations for both economic operators and providers of online marketplaces

(*) Reinforced product traceability requirements

(*) List of aspects to be taken into account when assessing the safety of products, including for new technologies

(*) Accident reporting to authorities by businesses

(*) Reinforced market surveillance rules

(*) Specific rules on how to handle product safety recalls, including a mandatory recall notice template, and right to remedy for consumers

Link to Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on general product safety, amending Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and the Council, and repealing Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 87/357/EEC (Text with EEA relevance)